Qatar, China, Georgia and Elon Musk

Here's a round up of interesting cyber-related stories from this week:

Qatar thinks it was hacked. "Lt. Col. Ali Mohammed al-Mohannadi, the head of an internal Qatari investigation of the events, stopped short of claiming proof of who was responsible for the hacking campaign. “The only thing we are sure of is that . . . the anticipation and the benefit from this hacking was in the UAE,” Mohannadi said of the investigation’s results at a news conference in Doha, the Qatari capital."

China bans Winnie-the-Pooh, who apparently looks too much like President Xi, from the net. "Last weekend, the Web went wild over reports that A.A. Milne's “bear of very little brain” had been blocked in China because of his resemblance to Chinese President Xi Jinping, as shown in a 2013 meme that likened Xi to a pudgy Pooh and President Barack Obama to a lanky Tigger."

Georgia thinks it was vulnerable. "Georgia’s top elections official stood out by refusing help from the Department of Homeland Security last August amid national concerns about the integrity of U.S. elections. . . . But Kemp’s assurances threatened to become a liability after new details emerged last month about major security mistakes at the center managing Georgia’s election technology. It turns out that the contractor left critical data wide open for months on the internet, and that for the second time under Kemp’s tenure, the personal information of every Georgia voter was exposed."

Elon Musk is more worried about AI, than hackers. "Elon Musk warned a gathering of U.S. governors that they need to be concerned about the potential dangers from the rise of artificial intelligence and called for the creation of a regulatory body to guide development of the powerful technology."

Paul Rosenzweig is the founder of Red Branch Consulting PLLC, a homeland security consulting company and a Senior Fellow at the R Street Institute. He is also a Senior Advisor to The Chertoff Group. Mr. Rosenzweig formerly served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Department of Homeland Security. He is a Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University and an Adjunct Lecturer at Northwestern University.